Someone not familiar with the Cowboy Junkies might expect one of the Classic City's crazier shows, based solely on the band's name.

Instead, when the foursome plays its slow, dark melodies at the Georgia Theatre tonight, the loudest sounds will likely come from the audience screaming for more.

Actually, the band's name doesn't mean much of anything. It all came down to marketing. The band needed something different and intriguing, and liked the combination of words.

Fronted by vocalist Margo Timmins, who turned 39 last month, the Junkies formed in Toronto in the summer of 1985. The band, Canadian all, is actually a family affair. Margo's brothers make up half of the band: Mike is on guitar, and Pete plays the drums. Bassist Alan Anton is the only non-Timmins.

"Because we're brothers and sister, we sort of know when to leave each other alone or when to tease someone because they're acting like an idiot," according to the band's Web site. "Also, in our business there are some times when people are putting pressure on you to do certain things. Because we know each other so well, the other can come to that person's rescue and say, 'You don't want to do that.' The downside is that it makes it hard for us to sue each other later on, except for Alan."

The Junkies was formed only after two failed pairings of Michael and Alan in the late '70s and early '80s. The band's first two albums, "Whites Off Earth Now!!" and "The Trinity Session," were bare-bones affairs, recorded sparsely with only one microphone. "Trinity," however, caught on in North America, selling 250,000 copies.

The band followed that success with the 1990 album "The Caution Horses" and a cover of "To Lay Me Down" on "Deadicated," a tribute album to the Grateful Dead in 1991. The band's reputation as a solid mellow country/slow rock outfit only strengthened with multiple albums in the '90s. Now, the band is touring to promote its latest release, "Rarities, B-Sides and Slow, Sad Waltzes."

"(It's) a collection of orphaned songs that failed to find a home on any of our previous seven studio albums," the Web site reports. "Some of them were recorded for special projects and ended up on soundtracks and tribute records. Some were recorded during the course of making an album, but failed to make the final cut. Some were written but never got past our rehearsal room's walls. Half of these recordings have never been heard by anyone but us, and the other half are pretty near impossible to find, until now that is."